Baptists want to save indigenous souls

Southern Baptists call for missions to endangered indigenous tribes

By JohnThomas DidymusFollowing news that a remote indigenous tribe unreached by the Gospel, in the Brazilian Amazon region, might have been wiped out after an assault by drug traffickers, the Southern Baptist mission has renewed its urgency for evangelizing missions among indigenous peoples it terms UUPGS, that is, unengaged, unreached people groups.

The report by the International Missions Board of Southern Baptist Convention was with emphasis on the American continent which it estimates has roughly about 300 "UUPGS," with some of the groups as small as five individuals and others up to thousands. The International Missions Board (IMB) estimates that there are about 50 to 70 of such groups in the Amazon basin alone, and a statement by Terry Lassiter in charge of IMB strategy for evangelizing American peoples bemoans the misfortune of tribal groups that were not reached by the Gospel before they were exterminated. According to Terry Lassiter, tribal peoples who were exterminated before they were reached by the gospel represent a "new level of darkness" which "should break the hearts of any Christian" because if the gospel does not reach a group before it is exterminated they are lost forever and "don't have the hope of salvation."

According to Lassiter:…That's really sad when you think that 2,000 years after the Great Commission we have people groups that don't have the Gospel and haven't even been contacted by the outside world. This is a whole new level of darkness. It breaks my heart and should break the hearts of any Christians to know that there are peoples like this that may have been exterminated—and they don't have the hope of salvation.Didymus notes the obvious problem with this:The rights of endangered indigenous peoples include respect for their secular and religious worldviews and providing them protection from groups who think that their way of life represents a "whole new level of darkness." Evangelizers who go to an endangered culture with such chauvinistic and patronizingly condescending ethno-racist pre-conception as that "these are peoples that have been in the (spiritual )darkness of the evil one for their entire existence," and that they need the Christian evangelist to bring out of a "whole new level of darkness" (being people who, otherwise, "don't have hope of salvation,") cannot be trusted to protect the rights of indigenous peoples.Comment:  So the Baptists plan emergency missions to save Indians. Not their bodies--who cares about those?--but their heathen souls. Because Jesus wants them to be Christians before they die.

"We're not sure Indians have souls," added one Baptist. "But we'll try to save them anyway."

A couple of relevant postings from Facebook:Eskimo:  If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to Hell?

Priest:  Not if you did not know.

Eskimo:  Then why did you tell me?Annie DillardHow sad it is to think of the multitudes who have gone to their graves in this beautiful island and never knew there was a hell.Mark Twain, lecture on the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii)For more on Christian missionaries, see Critics Slam Fischer's Racism and Kidnapping Children for Jesus.

Critics slam Fischer's racism

Hundreds of people have already posted comments on Bryan Fischer's racist screed against Indians. Here are some of the best ones:I've followed the AFA and its bizarre diatribes for quite a long time...this one takes the cake. Shame on you. By your logic, you just ceded your home.

Genesis 18:26-33 Someone did not do there homework on the native American tribes, for one most tribes had law in place AGAINST adultery not to mention not all Native American tribes were nomadic, also isn't god the only one who is supposed to judge humanity and races. This argument is so full of holes on your part if I were you I would try to delete this off the Internet before someone decides to point out just how full of holes this is.

You and your article are further proof that the "Christian Right" is neither Christian, nor right.

What self serving dribble. What makes Christianity "the" religion? Compared to American Indian spirituality, which dates back tens of thousands of years, Christianity is a cult. This is what the American Family Association supports. As an American Indian person this scares the hell out of me. How soon will the crusades start AGAIN and the genocide begin?

Jesus read this. "And he wept."

Wow. This is a joke, right? This guys is a total idiot!! He knows absolutely nothing about Native American History! He needs to do his research!

Puke on you! Yup I'm sure my ancestors deserved to be murdered, raped, and forced to live on barren lands while settlers came in, took their children to "Christian" schools and abused them sexually and physically until they despised themselves for being Native American. Puke on you!!!

This is a parody of the stupidity of the evangelical right, correct? Nobody is actually this ignorant.

As a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for 45 years, I find this article appalling, assuming,and grossly errant! As is so often the norm, when anyone, or any so-called Christian organization or affiliation ordains themselves as Judge, Jury and hangman, bent on changing people or nations, whom in their view are unlike themselves, and do not measure up to their standards or convictions, they usually become worse than those whom they desire to enlighten or convert!

Such hypocrisy. When reading the "guidelines for posting comments," I noticed these types of comments are banned: "Any display of... racism or 'racialism' including, but not limited to, race-based supremacist and/or separatist advocacy." Well Mr. Fischer, you just broke your own rules with your racist, hate-filled, ignorant commentary. This is what family values is? Justifying genocide?

Put a pin on the map for every place your ancestors have lived over the past 200 years and tell me who's more nomadic!

Bogglingly ignorant and hateful. Reading drivel like this makes it hard to remember that we're living in the 21st century.

You are an intellectual fraud. Despite the nonsense of the entire article, you misquote the least religious of the founding fathers at the end of your article. In fact, you cannot attribute Jefferson's quote because it doesn't exist. You lift the first portion of the quote "The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time" is from Jefferson's 1774 publication to the English king, A Summary View of the Rights of British America. If taken in context the meaning is the complete OPPOSITE of the one you are trying to portray. Jefferson states that the rights are not divine and cannot be aligned with religion. Jefferson's work completely contradicts what you are putting forth in--what one would loosely call--your essay.Yeah...those implacable Sioux...they objected to being brutalized and murdered...go figure! So the sexual practices of the European invaders was okay according to Christianity? Raping women and children...bringing in the first pedophiles...all THAT is morally upstanding? Parading around with the severed breasts and uteruses of slain women on their hats and saddles...all THAT was in line with the teachings of Christ???????

Shame on you Bryan Fisher....Christianity could be such a great religion if just one person in this world actually practiced it.

You are a terrible man. I'm a Christian, and an extremely conservative one at that. I even like much of what is on AFA. But you--you are terrible. The words you speak are so filled with vitriol that it cannot possible by classified as Jesus-like. YOU are the one who needs to repent of your hate, and betrayal of the love of Christ.

Wow you took a break from attacking gay people and their families and decided to attack Native Americans. You really are disgusting. You should just wear a white sheet and get it over with.

I took this article to my Bible study class last night, almost all people there agreed with this nut. I will not be going back to my church anymore.

These kind of articles get on an American Christian family site, is this what you are really teaching your people? Wow...you just prove to the world how Christian Americans really are, we have been telling all the world you are this way and always have been and you just proved it for us.

What sort of diseased mind comes up with this twisted perception of reality? Racist, bigoted, sexually repressed. Oh, a Christian diseased mind, right. I'm sure religious groups do some good in the world, but for every good deed they've done there are 100 like this.

Wow! So much for wanting to unite people. This blatant lie is typical of those who want to rewrite history. Let me get this straight..."God" said it's OK to use murder, enslavement, rape, and disease blankets to take the land? What a sick, sick god. Either that or the fact that you find it OK to justify murder by rewriting facts with fiction.

Um...wow. Copies of this article should be reproduced and sent to every newspaper in North America with the headline "The Christian Agenda Exposed." How long until Mr. Fischer and his ilk pass a law mandating conversions to Christianity upon pain of death for noncompliance? How long? ... Thanks Mr. Fischer for officially conceding the culture wars. This article demonstrates EXACTLY what will happen to personal freedom if the religionists get their way.

This fool doesn't believe in God in the slightest. He believes himself to be God.

Is this a joke? Is some one in America actually stupid enough to write something like this? Does some one as imbecilic as Bryan Fischer actually exist or is he a joke created by liberals to show the idiocy of right-wing loonies?None of this is surprising coming from someone who has so much hate for other minority groups including gays. But it's interesting how similar Fischer's rant is to classic anti-Semitic rants. Several years back I heard Pat Robertson say on the 700 Club that Jesus' statement "whatever you do to these my brothers you do it unto me" doesn't apply to 'just anybody' (Robertson's exact words), just to Christians. In other words, it's open season on everyone else.

Could it be that Bryan Fischer is really a wolf in sheep's clothing? He may actually be an atheist trying to destroy the AFA from within. We saw that last year when Democrats infiltrated Tea Party rallies, putting up ridiculous signs to make attendees look dumb and marginalize the movement.

Christianity is better than this hateful and uninformed screed. It is encouraging to see Christians rejecting this editorial. It will be very interesting to see whether the American Family Association denounces it as well, or whether by its silence it acquiesces in this hatred.

If ignorance is bliss, you must be one of the happiest clods on the face of God's green earth. As a follower of Christ, I'm saddened by the stunted state of your inner man. As a graduate of the sixth grade, I'm stunned by your complete lack of knowledge of basic American history (as well as your selective amnesia). As a guy with 12 years experience as a journalist for a number of "legitimate" newspapers, I can't ever recall reading such a pathetic, desperate cry for attention. You're a joke.

You are evil. Your organization is evil. God will smite you for your evil, racist beliefs.

This racist, self-congratulatory drivel is neither Biblical, moral, or just. AFA ought to be ashamed for publishing such ahistorical poppycock, if for no other reason than it makes the organization look like it supports racists with no knowledge of the past, no understanding of the scripture, and no grasp of the present. Your enemies have just been handed a gift wrapped can of fuel to throw on their flames, and for once, I hope they use it. For shame.

"And the Europeans proved superior in battle, taking possession of contested lands through right of conquest." Where do you get this "might is right" philosophy? Certainly not from any civilized convention, or Christian one for that matter. There is no "right of conquest"--read Rousseau.

I have never met a fundamentalist who is a Christian.

As a Christian I am deeply offended by this article. According to what you are saying, Christians basically have the right to take by force the native homelands of all non-Christians. I guess the Crusades were a good thing? It also seems that nomadic people have no rights? And we're talking about a lot of different tribes here...they don't all believe the same things, so it's ignorant to lump them together. We weren't even at 'war' with all of these people. Many of them were simply murdered because it made things convenient. Being 'superstitious' 'savage' and 'sexually immoral' does not make a people eligible for slaughter. As a Christian, you should spend more time reading the teachings of Christ.Missionaries always leave a place worse off than when they found it. If sexual deviancy invites poverty and other misfortunes delivered from God, explain the financial fortunes of the Catholic Church. It has been an oozing pus-pocket of child molestation for 2,000 years, yet it has gotten along quite well monetarily excepting the last 20 years or so. The only purpose ever served by organized Christianity has been to separate gullible people from their money.

I feel creepy even looking at this web site! This is pure Nazi-like evil. I'll keep my children away from all churches and Christians from now on!

Just when I thought the AFA couldn't sink any lower....

First of all, how many Christians are steeped in poverty, alcoholism, adultery, and other forms of sin? The only difference is that you repent in a church. Amerindian culture viewed God differently than Christians, but that does not make their views wrong. They come from a place of unity with the God and all his Creation.

Lord Jesus, please save us from your "followers."

This is one of the many reasons I am not a Christian anymore, because of morally repugnant stories like this by so called Christian writers. If there was a Jesus he would be disgusted with all of you.

Apparently genocide is now a "Family value."

Which tribe would Jesus Christ have slaughtered first?

So, it's OK for Christians to break God's Commandments on non Christians? The murder, rape, theft, internment, and destruction of Native Americans? Sounds like a few commandments got broken there, bub. So many hypocrites...no wonder people are turning their backs on Jesus by the millions.

People constantly ask me why I am an atheist and I confidently answer that if there were a god who was a benevolent being, he'd never allow all of the terrible things done in his name to happen. Now, that still leaves room for an evil god, but I'm not really convinced there. Of course, that's precisely the type of god this author worships.

Obviously suffering from genetic mental degeneration from his ancestors contracting a potent venereal disease.

So people who killed Indians were doing the Lord's work, clearly. Is it still OK to kill Indians? Please let us know ASAP so we know how to proceed....

I teach at a small Christian college. A little while back, one of my students posted something like this as her Facebook "religion" status: "I love Jesus, but his followers kind of creep me out." This mean-spirited and blatantly false diatribe shows why so many people come to feel that way. It makes me sad.

You of course know the people who wrote the Bible didn't know the Americas or China existed. Why did the Chinese and the Indians (India) survive as a people with their lands intact? Why did the Mongols take over most of the known world in the 13th Century? Your whole argument is full of holes. I hope you're prepared for the "arrows" that are sure to come....

Wow. If you don't get fired for this article, I will lose the remaining little faith I do have.

Comment:  A couple of the arguments are worth repeating:

Many tribes had sexual taboos and did not encourage promiscuity. I get the feeling Fischer read about Eskimos giving their wives to strangers in some white man's journal and extrapolated from that to several thousand cultures across two continents.

If the lack of Christianity was responsible for the Indians' downfall and subsequent poverty, why are countries such as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Macau doing so well? I'd love to see Fischer explain how heathen Asia managed to avoid collapse and conquest by God-loving Europeans.

Alas, mass murder and genocide have always been Christian "family values." The latest example is the tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed in Iraq. If a single Christian in America has mourned their deaths, I must've missed it.

For more on the subject, see Fischer:  Natives Had No Morals.

Kidnapping children for Jesus

The Missionary Impulse

By Timothy EganSilsby and her live-in nanny, Charisa Coulter, are still in a Haitian jail, where they have denied charges of child kidnapping. A judge there has agreed to release the two this week, but the case shows once again how easy it is to manipulate people in the name of an all-loving God.

“Kidnapping for Jesus” is what many, including outraged Idahoans, have called it in reader response to newspaper stories about the missionaries. Silsby says it’s all a misunderstanding, and her intentions were good.

At the least, the curious case of Laura Silsby raises questions about cultural imperialism: what makes a scofflaw from nearly all-white Idaho with no experience in adoption or rescue services think she has a right to bring religion and relief to a country with its own cultural, racial and spiritual heritage?

Imagine if a voodoo minister from Haiti had shown up in Boise after an earthquake, looking for children in poor neighborhoods and offering “opportunities for adoption” back to Haiti. He could say, as those who followed Silsby explained on a Web site, that “the unsaved world needs to hear” from the saved.And:Of course, no one moved by genuine concern should ever be discouraged from acting. And in Haiti, we’ve seen some of the best impulses of the human heart at work in life-saving triage.

Still, the damage by zealous amateurs has been done to legitimate adoption services, and to relief agencies with long and noble histories of helping the desperate, the poor, the unloved. Blame it on the missionary impulse, a lingering personality disorder of Western culture.

Most Native American tribes have three basic stories: a creation myth, a trail of tears out of the homeland and indignities suffered at the hands of Christian missionaries.

Some of the worst damage was done, the tribes will tell you, long after the Indian wars were over, when missionaries moved in. They broke up families, shipping children off to boarding schools where they were shorn of their language, their hair and their culture. They banned tribal customs like the potlatch—where Indians compete to give away gifts—and spirit rituals that had been passed on for centuries.

Edward Curtis, the photographer of American Indians, was so happy to find native people in the far north of Alaska whose lives had not been overturned by outside do-gooders that he wrote, “should any misguided missionary start for this island I trust the sea will do its duty.”Comment:  For more on Haiti and Indians, see Blame Indians and Haitians for Problems? and Haitians and Indians Cursed? For more on missionaries, see Whites Show Indians the Way? and Missionaries Considered Indians Animals.

Below:  "Laura Silsby has been held in a Haitian prison since January after she and others attempted to remove children from the country for adoption."